The Last day

Our final day in Venezuela was a very emotional and joyous time for all of the team members. The day began at 8:30 with the smell of bacon cooked by Steve, aka “aqua man”. Steve, the man of many talents, knew how to work the water pumps in order to give us running water each day. Anyway, we headed to Valle Dorado to spend half the day finishing our projects and saying our final goodbyes. The team was in charge of two main projects today, continuing the work on the 2^nd floor wall, and finishing the work on the foundation. The morning went by extremely too quickly. Before we knew it we were saying our final goodbyes to our Venezuelan Brothers and Sisters in Christ. This was a time filled with laughter and tears…but mostly tears. Even though, we are excited to come home, we are also torn by the fact that we don’t want to leave this home away from home.

Almost immediately after leaving Valle Dorado, the place we had been all week, we headed to Nigel’s house to worship and learn more about DropInn Ministry. Nigel had a great plan for us to go to the area we went to last year and have dinner with the children. This area was most certainly more poverty stricken than Valle Dorado, yet we still felt the same power of Christ in this area. This little church in the middle of this community is a beacon of hope for those who are lost in life… those who don’t have a personal relationship with God. It was incredible to see that each week the children have to memorize a Bible verse before they have dinner. Although we were only there for a short time, we were still able to connect with the children and provide them with two wonderful presents: “Jesus me amo” (Jesus loves me) keychains and chocolate. We left to head back to the seminary, but only after we got a picture with the pastor of the church and Nigel.

Our evening concluded with Scott’s “devotion,” which actually was prepared by each individual person: Our Testimony. It was a great experience that helped us to learn more about one another as brothers and sister. One BIG happy family!

We leave the seminary tonight at 2AM to drive to Valencia, VZ. Please pray for our safe travel tomorrow, and we can’t wait to see you when we get back. Adios, Chao, Hasta Luego, y Hasta Mañana.

Thursday, March 1st

Today, much like everyday, has been a day for evangelizing and manual labor. We started the morning in two separate teams. One team, consisting of Pam, Steve, Kim and Stacy went with Nigel to a drug rehab center. They sang songs and Steve gave words of encouragement. This group also took food to 5 families who were in desperate need of a good meal and a kind word. Everyone else went to Valle Dorado to continue work on the church. The goal before we leave is much like Sam’s devotion…Foundation! After tying rebar, Matt, Kathy, Sam, Phil and Scott began to pour concrete for the floors and the foundations. Dillon, Jessica and Parker were on the roof starting the first wall of the second floor. Our Venezuelan friends Jaqueline and Juli came up to help us after they returned from school. All was well until Dillon leaned against the wall and one section wasn’t attached to the floor. Apparently there wasn’t enough concrete in that mixture. Thankfully Merdado came up and helped us fix that section. Many very exciting things happened today. One that gave the team much joy is that our bus driver Willie, who has driven us for the past four years and is one of the nicest men I have ever met, accepted Jesus Christ into his life today!

That evening Dillon, with the help of Paula, took pictures of the children with the polaroid camera. Once again all of the children swarmed around him. We projected the movie Courageous in the street outside the church onto a white sheet. Many children and parents showed up. Everyone that stayed to watch the movie stayed after while Stacy and Scott did an excellent job explaining how important it is to be mothers, fathers and children of Christ. Pastor Smith also got up and spoke after Stacy and Scott and did not hold back. He told the community that they have a problem. Their children often do not have parents that are actively part of their lives and that this is not okay. He also encouraged the children that were there without their parents to bring their parents to church with them. It was unbelievable to see five niños accepted the Lord into their lives. A few of us prayed around them and Scott, with the help of Yoe, impressed upon them how important it is for them to come to church and continue to learn about the Lord and what it means to follow Him. After a long day, we headed back to the seminary and finished with a devotional from Phil. He touched base on a God’s blessing and how you can’t “out-give God”. Great way to end a great day.